The present invention relates to a power socket management system, and more specifically, a system for optimizing user device charging at a location.
It is often difficult to achieve the best use of power supply sockets in any given location. An example is given of a meeting room with an unused projector and conference phones connected to some central sockets. A meeting is scheduled and several people may arrive early and plug their laptops into the first sockets they see. The meeting room may fill up and there may be lots of people sitting around the tables about to start the meeting. An alert on a user's device may then indicate that there is only limited battery life left on their device. The user does not wish to interrupt the speaker or disrupt the meeting but needs to find an available power socket.
The user may scan the room and see all the sockets are occupied but does not know which are actually being used. The conference phones or projector may not be needed during the meeting. Also, some people may have their devices on charge despite having a full battery. It would be considered rude to unplug some else's device and difficult to ask permission during the meeting.
A current solution to this problem is to use extension leads that allow more devices to be plugged in. These are only meant to be for temporary use and are not replacements for permanent wiring. Such extension leads can be unsafe as they add extra trip hazards, overheating and can reduce in efficiency over time.
Conference rooms may have a multi-device charging hub which is similar to an extension lead but also contains areas for phones to be charged and network access. This still has the issue that, once a person has sat down in a position, they are there for the duration of the meeting blocking access to that hub.
Another solution that exists is inductive or wireless charging that uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two devices. This may be provided in a meeting room where all participants can be charging from their position in the room. The issue with this is that it is very expensive and takes a long time to charge especially when busy employees are running lots of energy intensive programs.